"Can you ride?" I asked Malia.

"Probably. I don't imagine I've forgotten how. Remember Grandma's horse. How we fought about who got to ride him?" She was tracing the tattoo on the back of her right hand. "I'd rather see if we can get your mare to carry a couple of the girls. They're weak. The assholes weren't feeding us very well, especially the little ones. Some perverted idea that if they didn't have the correct nutrition, puberty would be delayed."

I couldn't help the rude grunt that exploded from me. "I've got bottles of water for all of you. I've also got trail mix. The same stuff we used help Grandma make."

"Smarties and all?" Malia asked.

"Yes. Costs me a fortune to buy enough of them for the big batch recipe these days, but it's worth it." I opened every bottle twisting the ridged caps viciously.

"Girls, you can drink half of the water now. Maya, no raisins. You're allergic." The tallest of the waifs nodded her head.

"I'll give them to Jenna."

I handed out the water, thinking the children would probably guzzle it down, but they sipped as if they were savoring their favorite fruit punch, or soda.

I had a dozen small Zip-loc™ bags with snack sized portions of trail mix. As I handed them out, one of the girls snatched hers from my hand and it disappeared into the pouch of her hoodie.

"Ella, you can eat it now. There's more food coming later," Malia said. "They kept them hungry, like I said."

I had to hold onto my temper. I wanted to shout my disgust to the world, but the last thing these victims needed was an angry outburst. I couldn't believe how fast the Smarties disappeared.

"We haven't had chocolate in years," Malia said. She was crunching nuts, as I sat down beside Maya to help her sort out the raisins.

"Since you're giving me your raisins, I'll give you my nuts Maya. I used to have trail mix with my mom. She said it was a treat if I ate my broccoli, cause it was good for me. Will my mom want me back? I've been so bad." Jenna had all the almonds and cashews in one hand.

I could only nod my head. The lump in my throat made it tough to formulate an answer. I was sure her mother would be ecstatic to find her child alive, but then again, considering her coloring, who knows what her story was.

"Everyone okay in here?" Chayton stopped just inside the jagged entrance.

The girls stopped eating hiding the remaining portions of their food under their legs or in their jackets. Two of them pushed their water bottles behind themselves.

"I'm sorry, we have to walk back to the hooghan," his words brought a lengthy drawn out sigh from Maya. "Do you have the binoculars, Alyana? There's activity down on the ranch, and I don't like it."

"They're in the saddlebags. The left one, I think," I stood up to head out, and Ella grabbed my hand. "Can I come with you?"

"Sorry, sweetheart. Stay inside. It's safer. You got away, and we won't let anything bad happen again." I hoped I could keep my promise.

"I'll get them. Come out when you can." Chayton pivoted on his heel and disappeared.

I settled Ella beside Jenna. Then Maya sat between them, and they pulled out their snacks to keep eating. The two tiny girls couldn't be more than five or six-years-old, and they fed each other Smarties, sucking on them, and melting the candy coating before eating the chocolate.

Looking at them more closely I realized they were identical twins. Thinking about the tapes I had, I shuddered. I clamped down on the images flashing through my brain and promised myself I would pull the balls off the offender with great pleasure.

"It's chaos down there," Chayton pointed at the tiny village of prefabricated homes. Men scurried every which way turning keys in locked doors and shouting as they came back out. The architecture was varied, a high end product and would have been a charming sight in any other suburban setting.

"What's going on? Can you tell?" I asked.

"I don't think Malia is the only one who escaped. And I'm hoping they had a good head start. Edison is going to kill us. I don't think we're going to get that clean take down he wanted." His forehead wrinkled as he wrestled with the problems his good intentions the night before caused. They were backfiring in front of his eyes.

"You did the right thing. Even with the raid coming, the women are better off away. Less chance of a hostage situation now, even though we won't catch them in the act. The red tapes are going to convict them without question."

He was dialing his phone as I spoke.

"Plan C," he barked. "The women escaped. We have one with five pre-teen girls in a cave up here, not far from Alyana's place. We're going to be walking them down immediately."

I waited impatiently as he listened to incident command barking orders.

"You knew?" He nodded as he listened. "Tribe healers? Meeting us at Alyana's? How soon?" More nods and he hit the end call button.

"Well?"

"Their advance scout noted all the women leaving. Malia was first with the kids. The others went in groups of two and three in different directions. Smart. It was like they were just waiting for the opportunity."

"They have a chance then. Look, they're getting on horses."

"I hope the hangovers are bad enough to keep them from thinking straight. Listen? Do you hear it?"

"Helicopter. Your guys were prepared. Arrogant assholes. I'll bet they're only thinking about punishing them when they catch up with them."

"Domestic violence perps never think they're the problem. Do you happen to have a sidearm in with the rest of your stuff?"

"No, when I go out for antelope, I use a rifle. I didn't even bring my telephone. Well cell phone. I hope they round up the idiots before they catch up with the escapees. Right now, though, we need keep any negative thoughts away from these kids and get them down to my place safe."

"Now that Bingo's had his way with Star, he'll be good with kids on his back. We'll leave the saddles up here. I'm good riding him bareback when we get a chance to retrieve them."

"I'm putting my saddle back on Starr. Malia isn't strong enough to walk. She insists she is, but I figure she's about fifty pounds underweight. Nothing but skin and bones." I saw a caravan of flashing lights racing down the gravel road to the ranch gate.

"In that case, I'll put mine on Bingo too. Save ourselves a trip up here later."

Chayton swung my saddle up for me, and I made quick work of settling it and tightening the cinch. Heading back into the cave, I found six empty water bottles.

"Fill them up over there. I pointed to the tiny pool of freshwater glimmering in the dim light from the fire. Someone had added wood to the embers. "It's good to drink and I think you all need more."

Maya stood up, gathering three of the bottles. "Get the rest Jenna. We can do it."

"We're getting out of here. The police are going in to arrest the bad guys," I told Ella. "I'm glad you got out before they came."

Her eyes shimmered, and her voice quivered. "They were bad guys too."